1. Field of the Invention
The field of the present invention involves hide processing equipment and particularly hide processing machines in which hides are tumbled within a generally cylindrical drum in the presence of a suitable processing fluid. One application of such processing is for the removal of hair from selected hides, such as steer hides. Such devices may also be used for other chemical treatment of hides at various stages in their total processing.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Hide processing machines are known, in which such a processing drum is rotated on its longitudinal axis and such axis is inclined somewhat to the horizontal, so that hides and processing fluid can be retained at one closed end of the drum and loaded or unloaded from an opposite open end of such a drum. To facilitate such loading and unloading, it has also been known to provide helical or spiral conveying flights along the peripheral inner surfaces of the drum. Such flights have normally extended from the drum wall only to a limited extent toward the central axis of the drum, so that the hides are free to tumble within the single large cylindrical compartment provided by the drum. One well-known prior art machine of this type is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 3,518,849. Various proposals have also been made for special arrangement of the inner edges of such spiral flights to achieve what were assumed to be desirable results in the nature of a "scudding" action as the hides tumble across the edges of such flights. Such arrangements are shown, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,665,735; 3,670,534; 3,795,121; and 3,803,882.